South End to get 23-story tower, 2,000 high-paying Lowe’s tech jobs

In a major nod to Charlotte’s growing technology workforce, Lowe’s announced Thursday it has selected the city for a 2,000-employee global tech hub, which will be housed in a new 23-story tower to go in South End.

The home improvement retailer said it is spending $153 million on the project.

Gov. Roy Cooper, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and other state and local officials joined Lowe’s leaders for the announcement.

The 375,000-square-foot office is a joint venture between Childress Klein and Ram Realty Advisors. The developers plan to break ground in August, and the goal is to open the facility in late 2021, according to Lowe’s.

Design Center Tower

Called the Design Center Tower, the building site is adjacent to the Lynx Blue Line light rail and Rail Trail. The property is currently a surface parking lot on Worthington Avenue across from the Design Center.

Lowe’s will be hiring for a number of roles, including software and infrastructure engineers, data scientists, analysts, architects, user experience and user interface professionals, and technologists with artificial intelligence and machine learning engineering experience, the company said.

Salaries will vary, but Lowe’s said the average annual pay for the new positions will be more than $117,000.

Lowe’s had also considered Dallas for the new tech hub, as The Charlotte Observer reported in May.

Ultimately, a number of factors drew Lowe’s to Charlotte, including its proximity to the retailer’s headquarters in nearby Mooresville.

Millennial recruitment

In choosing the new location, Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison said the company was attracted to the prospect of recruiting from the growing millennial population in Charlotte, especially in South End.

That generation is interested in living in dense areas close to public transit like the light rail, Ellison said. The ability to walk, bike or scooter to work is a plus, too, he added. 

“South End for us is just perfect. It gives us all of those things, and we’re getting in at the perfect time,” Ellison said. “We’re excited to be first major corporation to plant a flag in South End, and we hope other companies come in to facilitate the tech talent moving forward.”

Lowe’s plans to fill the first 400 positions in the next year, and will begin hiring for the jobs immediately, the company said.

While the company is building the new facility, it will temporarily house the tech center at the Charlotte Plaza in uptown. That’s the building on College Street that houses Grant Thornton. Lowe’s said it will start moving employees into that space as soon as next month.

Ellison took over as CEO almost exactly one year ago. In recent months, Ellison has said Lowe’s is in the early stages of a major overhaul, which includes revamping stores, improving product inventory, shutting down under-performing business units and improving IT.

“One of the first observations I made when I joined the company is that we really needed to accelerate our investment in tech,” Ellison said. “There are two characteristics of great retailers: A clear and consistent view of who customer is … a great tech platform.”

Lowe’s first announced plans for the 2,000 tech hires at its annual analyst and investor conference in December. At the time, Ellison said that Lowe’s has fallen behind when it comes to tech innovation.

The new facility in South End will modernize Lowe’s technology system, driving the company’s growth forward, Lowe’s said.

Several South End office projects

Lowe’s is the latest of several corporations to pick South End for its new offices.

Krispy Kreme quietly opened its new corporate offices in a renovated former warehouse on Hawkins Street, for instance. Financial services firm Dimensional Fund Advisors recently opened its newly constructed East Coast headquarters office in the former Common Market spot.

Charlotte fintech company LendingTree announced in April that it’s moving its headquarters from Ballantyne to a new tower being built on South Tryon Street at Carson Boulevard.

This article originally appeared in The Charlotte Observer.

This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 9:36 AM with the headline "South End to get 23-story tower, 2,000 high-paying Lowe’s tech jobs."